The present invention relates to a thin film magnetic head slider, more particularly, to a magnetic head slider formed of a sintered material exhibiting superior lubricating properties and outstanding wear characteristics.
In the field of magnetic disc files, it is widely known that a thin film magnetic head is employed under such conditions that the head flies over the surface of a magnetic disc. In accordance with the progress of data processing technology, data are stored in the magnetic disc at higher densities; therefore, it is required to use a magnetic head that is kept closer to the surface of the magnetic disc in order to prevent the influence of the neighboring tracks.
A material used to form the thin film magnetic head slider necessarily must satisfy the following conditions:
(1) the material must be stable against chemicals and the heat treatments which are applied during the magnetic head manufacturing process; PA0 (2) the material must not change its form and its characteristics during machining; PA0 (3) the material must provide easy measurement accuracy; PA0 (4) the material must be easy to plane and grind; and PA0 (5) the material must exhibit a superior lubricant property with respect to the magnetic disc.
In order to satisfy these conditions, the material used for forming the thin film magntic head slider should have the following characteristics. The material exhibits a thermal expansion coefficient close to that of other materials used in the magnetic head assembly, a high Young's modulus, a high thermal conductivity, a moderate hardness (one that is not extremely high, preferably under 1500 Kg/mm.sup.2 in Vickers hardness number), and a small specific gravity.
A slider material made from mixture of Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 and TiC is known as a conventional material and is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,251,841. This material is good in many respects and is widely used. But this material has some deficiencies, for example, its thermal conductivity is not high and its hardness is too high so that damage may occur by contact between the magnetic head slider and the magnetic disc during prolonged time use. Consequently, this material fails to exhibit sufficient reliability.